Arthur C Clarke Dies at 90

With the death of Arthur C Clarke, the list of great science fiction writers from the Golden Age has dropped to one-Ray Bradbury. Issac Asimov and Robert A Heinlein have been gone for some time and they seemed like relics from another time even then. I have not been a huge reader of modern science fiction, most of it feels as if it has lost it’s way. Harlan Ellison is among the last generation that grew up without television poisoning their creativity. And Harlan is no spring chicken himself.

I loved 2001:A Space Odyssey, though to be honest, I never understood that whole bit at the end. Rendezvous with Rama, a book that was totally weird and made even less sense than the end of 2001, was one of my favorite Arthur C Clarke books. It was weird, but I liked it. The story was pretty much ruined by its much later sequels, but I read them when they came out just the same. The current rumors are that Rendezvous with Rama is being made into a movie starring Morgan Freeman. If it is even close to the book it will have to be a total CGI blitz.

I read in an article by Asimov that a geostationary orbit was known as a Clarke orbit, but I had never heard that before, and have not seen it elsewhere until now. It seems Clarke could have gotten a patent or some such and charged people to use ‘his’ orbit. Of course, even a sci fi writer might have guessed how full of junk our sky was going to end up being.

Arthur C Clarke was a great writer, and he will be missed. But like Asimov and Heinlein, his works will live on.